Company Creates Restricted Prepaid Card for Recovering Addicts

The Next Step Card is a prepaid MasterCard designed to help recovering addicts stay sober by restricting where they can spend the funds. The MasterCard-branded card was developed by recovering addicts to provide friends and family a way to give people in treatment money without needing to worry about how it would be spent.

The card won’t work at cocktail lounges or casinos, nor will it fetch cash, a toxic asset for addicts, from ATMs. The people filling up the prepaid card can opt to see all the purchases and get text message updates to make sure their money isn’t killing their loved ones.

Even though addicts might be able to find a way around the card’s restrictions, the card’s creators say it will act as an additional line of defense against relapses. It is interesting to note that Publix, a Florida-based supermarket chain, allows purchasers of its gift cards to have them imprinted “No Alcohol, Tobacco, or Lottery Purchases,” though the company notes this is a soft restriction only an cards may end up used that way in some instances.